Investment News
Sony becomes Kadokawa's largest Shareholder with $318m investment
Future partnerships will focus on joint investments, discovering new creators, and promoting media mixes of their IP
Funding For Games
Moon Beast Productions raises $4.5m to ‘revolutionise’ action RPGs
The studio plans to unveil more details about the project in early 2025
New Partnerships
NEOM Media partners with Kwalee, Sandsoft, Tamatem and others to launch games publishing network
This is part of its Level Up accelerator program to bolster the gaming ecosystem in Saudi Arabia
Pgc London
Start networking right now! MeetToMatch is LIVE for Pocket Gamer Connects London 2025
Hop into our sophisticated meeting platform and start networking with leading companies today
Legal Battle
Did the European court just give cheats a thumbs-up?
Futura’s head of digital practice Alina Davletshina shares on the impact of Sony’s case against Datel
Funding For Games
Vgames raises $142m for third fund to back global game studios
The fund has invested in companies like InnPlay Labs, SuperPlay, 1047 Games, and Candivore
Best Of The Best
Asian developers dominate as 2024's top 10 new mobile games surpass $3 billion
Dungeon & Fighter: Mobile, Love and Deepspace, Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket and others led the way for new games’ success this year
Jobs In Games
Jobs in Games: Kayfo's Doumgou Tibiang Yeshua on how to get a career as a developer
In this series, we highlight the talented team members working in the games industry and how they got their break
Funding News
Databricks raises $10bn to bring company valuation to $62bn
The funds will go towards acquisitions, expansions and developing new AI products
Milestone
Fingersoft’s Hill Climb Racing series hits 2.5 billion downloads
The company said that the franchise attracts over 50 million players monthly
Levelplay X Bigo Ads: Win-win
BIGO Ads Integrates with Unity LevelPlay: Boosting Revenue for Mobile Game Developers
Global Demand Meets Massive Traffic: A Win-Win for Developers and Advertisers
App Store Trends
Apple reveals most downloaded games and apps on the App Store for 2024
Monopoly Go, Roblox, Squad Busters and more amongst most played games on iPhone
Funding For Games
Turkish developer Agave Games gets $18m funding
The Find the Cat studio will use the funding to continue development on existing titles and expand its team
Career Zone
Joint venture between PG Connects and Games Factory Talents returns to create career opportunities in London
Connecting talent with opportunity in the industry - the Career Zone returns to Pocket Gamer Connects London 2025
Global Trends
Global Trends: Pocket Gems CEO Ben Liu on the art of making great games and the need for "luck and magic"
We catch up with industry leaders to get their insights on the state of play in the games sector
Age Rating
Balatro rated 18+ by PEGI as developer critiques rating system
LocalThunk compares 18+ rating to EA Sports FC’s age three rating
New Offerings
Pokémon GO partners with McDonald's US to add PokéStops and Gyms at 13,500 locations
The events will run from December through to March 2025
New Partnerships
Kiddopia teams up with Moonbug to bring Little Angel characters to learning platform
The first set of Little Angel-themed games will launch in 2025
Investment News
Aonic receives €152 million investment to fuel M&A
Games group includes nDreams, TutoToons, Red Games, Exmox, Gravite and more
Podcast | Episode 40
Games industry trends 2024 review | Week in Mobile Games podcast
The PocketGamer.biz podcast team give you the state of play every week. Here's where to get it and and what's inside this week's episode 40...
Sponsor Shoutout
Pocket Gamer Connects London 2025 expo and conference nearly full
Space is filling rapidly for Pocket Gamer Connects London 2025, the biggest b2b games event in London and the UK...
New Partnerships
WHO teams up with Goodville to launch new virtual health assistant ‘Sarah'
Players can interact with Sarah through an in-game chat
Tiktok Ban
US court rejects TikTok's bid to halt pending ban
ByteDance must divest TikTok by January 19th, 2025 or face a ban
Leaving Soon
Netflix removes GTA 3 and Vice City from gaming library after one year
GTA: San Andreas is still available to play for now
New Offerings
Samsung takes cue from NYT as it introduces games to News app
The Six trivia game is currently available to Galaxy users in the US and Canada
Hot Five
Hot Five: Animal Crossing’s comeback, Balatro’s big milestone, and Infinity Nikki’s record launch
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
Week That Was
Zynga sells Chartboost, Epic partners with Telefónica and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete hits $3M | Week in Views
The Pocketgamer.biz team pick their highlights from the headlines this week and deliver the stories behind the stories
Milestone
Balatro has sold over 3.5 million copies
The card game also won the 2024 Mobile Game of the Year at The Game Awards
Audience Choice
PG Connects London 2025 to spotlight indie developers with Big Indie Zone Audience Choice Award sponsored by Jam City
The conference, which takes place on January 20 - 21, 2025, will feature several fringe events providing developers opportunities to present their games
Awards Season
Balatro wins Mobile Game of the Year at The Game Awards
Balatro also won Best Debut Indie Game and Indie Game of the Year
New Games
New release roundup: Monument Valley 3, Girls’ Frontline 2: Exilium, Cyber Quest and more
We highlight the latest new games that have broken cover over the past week
Milestone
Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket hits 60 million downloads
This comes ahead of Mythical Island expansion later this month
New Partnerships
Epic Games partners with Telefónica to pre-install Fortnite and the Epic Games Store on Android
The deal extends to 2025 and players will be able to download third-party games in the future
Game Ads
Creative trend: The evolution of the near-death snake experience in game ads
In this regular column UA and marketing expert Matej Lančarič shares his thoughts on some of the biggest topics in games
Mena Market
EsportsXO partners with Abu Dhabi Gaming to open regional headquarters in the MENA region
The partnership is expected to create new job opportunities over the next five years
Company Spotlight
Company Spotlight: Kabam
Find out more about Kabam, the studio behind the hit games Marvel Contest of Champions and Shop Titans.
Crossovers
Buzz Lightyear joins Brawl Stars in Toy Story crossover
Buzz debuts today and will be available to play from December 12th until February 4th, 2025
Winners Revealed
Apple unveils 2024 App Store Awards winners
AFK Journey, Squad Busters and Balatro among this year's winners
Afk Acceleration
The nuance of a successful sequel: Balancing familiarity and refreshing experiences in AFK Journey
We spoke with AFK Journey executive producer Jiangyuan about design philosophy, player feedback and more
Closure Announcement
Glow Up Games shuts down after facing ongoing industry challenges
The studio aimed to build authentic and inclusive game experiences
Iterating On Ideas
The illusion of iteration with Monument Valley
Ustwo and Monument Valley 3 game director Jennifer Estaris discusses the development of Monument Valley
Podcast Deep Dive
Join the PocketGamer.biz Podcast Infinity Nikki deep dive
Share your insights with us and we'll make them part of the show!
10 Year Anniversary
10 years of sweet success: The evolution of Candy Crush Soda Saga
King VP, head of creative Abigail Rindo shares on Candy Crush Soda Saga’s journey to a decade
Milestone
Infinity Nikki has surpassed 10 million downloads worldwide
The game generated $4m in gross revenue on mobile four days after its launch
Anniversary
My.Games marks Rush Royale's fourth anniversary with special birthday event and $370m revenue milestone
Since its launch, Rush Royale has garnered over 90 million downloads
Funding For Games
Beam Ventures launches in Abu Dhabi with $150m fund to support game studios
The firm will also launch an accelerator program that focuses on early-stage web3 gaming and AI start-ups
Jobs In Games
Jobs in Games: Rababa Games' Mohammad Al-Aghar Rawashdeh on how to get a career as an environment artist
In this series, we highlight the talented team members working in the games industry and how they got their break
Sale Boost
Zynga sells Chartboost to LoopMe
Publisher had previously bought mobile ads and monetisation platform in a $250 million deal in 2021
New Studio
Clear Angle Studios opens new studio in Culver City
The new studio has already supported five major film productions and three games industry projects
More Games
Arkadium unveils six new games to end the year with 18 releases
Platform invests heavily as browser-based gaming grows in popularity